Customers stampede forces Next to close its website as online shoppers rush to buy clothes
Next’s website was forced to close itself to orders after just one hour yesterday as shoppers flooded online to buy clothes.
The retailer reopened its online shop after criticism of work practices in its warehouses forced it to close last month.
Next has limited how much it sells each day as part of measures designed to keep staff at a safe distance from each other. Yesterday this quota was hit at 8am.
Next’s website was forced to close itself to orders after just one hour yesterday as shoppers flooded online to buy clothes
The website is offering stripped back ranges such as childrenswear and selected small home items, with more products to be added.
Bosses said they have spent two weeks ‘reworking’ warehouse operations to ensure staff who want to work ‘feel safe, work safe and are safe’.
In an update to the market yesterday it added: ‘The idea is to begin selling in low volumes, so that we only need a small number of colleagues in each warehouse.
‘To achieve this Next will only allow customers to order the number of items that it believes can be picked safely on any given day. At that point we will then stop taking orders.’
Last month Next’s chief executive Lord Wolfson said it could lose up to £1billion in sales this year.
Its 500 stores have been closed by the Government amid the national lockdown as they are not considered ‘essential’.